


Return

by Wickedrider98



Category: The Bastards Crew, The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 12:49:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19173622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wickedrider98/pseuds/Wickedrider98
Summary: Phantomness meets up with The Mechanisms again





	Return

The Catacombs of New France were uncomfortably tight. But they’d gotten a signature of a being like them, and Raphaella and Marius were interested on at the very least taking a look. Jonny knew the Mechanism here wouldn’t approve, but he wasn’t about to admit to knowing who this was. Ashes seemed to have a similar feeling, they stayed silent as they walked down the stone tunnel.  
“How are you so sure she settled here?” They asked from their spot next to Jonny, who shrugged.  
“She’s the only one not accounted for. The rest either banded with us or the other crew.”  
“Fair.” There was a long silence, “Do you think she’ll remember us?”  
“Probably,” Jonny responded, “and I have a feeling she won’t be happy about it.”  
Ashes nodded.  
“Can’t say I blame her, she’s gonna hate that there’s more of us.” They murmured.  
“Oh definitely.”  
Jonny caught Brian frowning at the two as they moved forward.  
“You know something about this, don’t you?” His eyes didn’t leave Jonny as they walked.  
“So what if I do?” he hissed, “I don’t have to tell you anything.”  
“You’re getting awfully defensive.” The Drumbot shrugged. Jonny started to respond, but was cut off by the sounds of footsteps on the stone in front of them.  
“Shit.” Jonny muttered, drawing his gun. He glanced down one of the corridors to his left. It was dark, but he could just barely make out a figure dashing towards them in the shadows. Jonny fired blindly into the dark.  
“FUCKIN’-” The figure screeched as a bullet embedded in their flesh. Jonny laughed triumphantly a walked forward to retrieve his prey, when a flash of silver came flying out of the tunnel. The knife soared through the air before embedding itself in Jonny’s stomach, its swirling rainbow blade sticking out from the gore.  
“I know that blade,” he heard Ashes mutter from behind him. The rest of The Mechanisms were ready for a fight, though none of the rushed to help their impaled captain first mate as the dark figure rushed out of the darkness. As she slammed into Jonny and they both crashed to the ground, he caught a glimpse of the familiar silver mask.  
“There’s plenty more where that came from, asshole! You put a bullet in me I put a knife in your-” Phantomness’s eyes widened when she saw her victim, “Well, tie my balls to a goat! Jonny D’Ville, how the fuck are ya’?”  
She stood and offered her hand to the space pirate, pulling him to his feet.  
“Oh you know, ‘bit impaled.” Jonny glowered.  
“You’ll regenerate, quit moaning.” Ashes called out from behind him.  
She caught sight of The Quartermaster and the rest of the crew and pushed past Jonny to them as Marius tried to pull her blade out of his stomach.  
“Is someone going to tell me who the hell she is, how she knows Jonny, and why she’s tying things to a goat!?” Tim asked. The masked girl turned to the Master-at-Arms and bowed dramatically.  
“The name’s Phantomness,” she proclaimed, “I worked with The Doc, early on when it was just her, Jonny, and later Ashes.”  
She glanced around the crowd of space pirates.  
“So… there’s more of us now?”  
“You’re one of us?” Marius asked over Jonny’s screams of pain as he pulled the knife out.  
“I was one of the first of you.” She corrected, “not willingly, but I was.”  
“Oh?”  
“Can I have my knife back?” Her tone suggested that part of the conversation was over. Marius handed the bismuth blade back to her, “thank you. Now, why are you here exactly?”  
“We got someone on our radar who gave off a signal similar to us,” Raphaella explained, “and we found you.”  
“I see,” Phantomness murmured as she cleaned off her blade, “Well. This has been fun. I guess. But if you don’t mind I am being very well paid to see to it that a certain gang boss doesn’t make it out of the pub he’s currently in alive. Please, don’t feel free to come visit again.”  
She turned and started back down the dark tunnel.  
“Hey, wait!” Ashes shouted, “You haven’t seen us a millennia and this is how you’re reacting?”  
“Yep.” Phantomness didn’t even look over her shoulder, “I have a new life here, and I’ve put all of that behind me.”  
“What happened to you?”  
“I got a metal stomach and immortality, and in exchange I lost all of the fucks I had to give.”  
Jonny fired off another shot into the black before he even realized he had his gun out. It was impossible to aim of course, but based on the gurgling breaths coming from the tunnel he guessed he’d hit a lung. Phantomness staggered into the dim light, a strange, convulsing laugh escaping her.  
“Now I understand why you didn’t get on with the Doc Jonny,” she smiled ruefully, “neither of you can just let Hel hold what she has.”  
“You need to relearn your manners.” Jonny shrugged.  
“Don’t make me put another knife in you.” she let out a strangled sigh, “alright. You have my attention, what do you want?”  
“For the record I didn’t ask him to do that.” Ashes said.  
“It got her back here, didn’t it?” The first mate looked rather pleased with himself.  
“Anyways,” The Quartermaster pretended they hadn’t heard, much to Jonny’s displeasure, “it’s just that most of the rest of us have banded together somewhere or other, and you’re the outlier. So I thought I’d offer.”  
Phantomness shook her head.  
“No way,” she responded, “you still travel with Doctor and no way in the Nine Worlds am I ever going back to working with her. Where is she, by the way? I doubt she’d miss an opportunity to ruin the day of one of her creations, especially me.”  
There was an long silence, filled only with shuffling and awkward coughs.  
“What?” She asked, tilting her head to one side, “did you all and her have some sort of fall out?”  
“Yes, straight out an airlock.” Ashes answered.  
“Jonny pushed her!” The Toy Soldier added in an attempt to be helpful.  
“For the last time you damn automaton, I did not push her!” Jonny hissed, “even if she did have it coming…”  
Phantomness laughed, sounding a bit more healthy-sounding than previously.  
“So, she finally bit it then?” She snorted, “good riddance.”  
“Not a fan of her either then?” Ivy questioned.  
“Not particularly. You tend to lose respect for someone when they drug you in your sleep and replace your stomach with metal.”  
“You didn’t respect her to start with.” Jonny countered.  
“Neither did you.” Phantomness’s glare softened, “So if the Doc is gone then what do you lot do now?”  
“We travel the stars, collecting stories and telling them to audiences throughout the universe.” Raphaella explained.  
Phantomness raised an eyebrow and turned to Ashes.  
“And that’s all you do?” She asked.  
“Mixed with some casual murder and arson, but that’s about the gist of it.” They confirmed. A smile spread across Phantomness’s face.  
“That’s more like it. Well, no Doc, casual violence, and storytelling? I’m in.”  
“We didn’t ask-” Jonny was cut off by Phantomness shoving past the crew and heading back from the way they’d come. When she realized there was no one behind her, she stopped and stamped her foot on the stone.  
“Well, are we getting out of here or not?” She pressed. There was a brief pause before the crew slowly started to shuffle towards her, all trying to ignore Jonny fuming in the back.  
“She knows she’s not the captain, doesn’t she?” He huffed as he grudgingly followed.  
“Neither are you,” Ashes pointed out, adding to his anger, “but she’ll be easier to keep track of this way.”  
Jonny snorted.  
“I guess.”


End file.
